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Smithsonian reveals final list for new games exhibit

Washington D.C. is about to be invaded by a who's who of video game icons.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum has unveiled the 80 fan-selected titles that will be on display at an upcoming exhibition on the art of video games -- and a lot of familiar names appear on the list.

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Woo-hoo!

Mario. Master Chief. Donkey Kong. Lara Croft. They'll all be part of the display, which opens next March and runs through September.

The Smithsonian issued a call for votes in February. Two months later, 119,000 people in 125 countries had cast 3.7 million votes. 240 titles were nominated, spread across 20 different gaming systems and a variety of genres. The titles were broken into five categories by time period, ranging from the Atari 2600 days to the modern era of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

While several obvious candidates -- Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros. 3 and Space Invaders -- made the cut, many of the games that will be showcased weren't bestsellers. And there were some surprising omissions.

For example, Gordon Freeman's travel visa from City 17 apparently wasn't approved. Half-Life and Half-Life 2, despite being two of the most highly-rated games of all time, didn't get enough votes to make it into the exhibit. (The original Portal, however, did.)

God of War, similarly, was bested by the much loved (but poor-selling) Shadow of the Colossus. And, in a real shocker, indie smash Minecraft managed to edge out blockbuster Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty for a spot/

In addition to the games on display, the Smithsonian will feature five titles in the exhibit that will be playable "for a few minutes": Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst and World of Warcraft.

That's right. You'll be able to fight for the horde in the same building where some of Georgia O'Keeffe's master works are on display. Convincing people to quit after just a few minutes, though, might take some extra security.

Also included will be video interviews with developers and artists and a collection of historic game consoles.

A detailed full list of the winners can be found at the Smithsonian's web site, but an alphabetical list of the winning featured titles is below. Did your faves make the cut?